Lion House Rolls

Just thinking of Thanksgiving coming around the corner.  It won't actually be at my home this year.  Very seldom is it, but still we must have a proper Thanksgiving Dinner at the Clawson household.  It's usually the Sunday before, but I MUST have leftovers at MY home when the big meal is over.  To be truly honest, and forthwith I could do without the main meal.  Yup!  I just said it, BUT the main meal produces the leftovers so I guess it really is a necessity:)  There is nothing better in this world than a leftover turkey sandwich with mustard, stuffing, and cranberry sauce on it.  These rolls will fit that bill. A slice or two of pie for a midnight snack, and if we are lucky enough to have my Granny's famous Spinach Balls, I'll eat a few of those for brekky the day after.  

So I've been trying out a few new things, and I've never made these Lion House Rolls before.  How could that be?  I mean, Mormon Utahan that I am, I should have tried these by now.  They turned out spectacular!!  I especially love the shape and how they look.  But they tasted great!  It could have helped to have a perfect bottle of raspberry jam to slather on the rolls too, and the fact that I was starving, but they were good the day after too.  My sister Hollie and my brother Eric both had their wedding dinners at the Lion House, and the Pantry always has such wonderful pies.  The Lion House cookbooks are huge favorites at my house.  Tons of recipes that have become staples.  These rolls will now go into the mix with Hollie's Orange Rolls, and my favorite Dilly Rolls.  Maybe they'll adorn your Thanksgiving table this year, or if you're lucky, next Sunday!

Here's a link to a Youtube of the Lion House head baker-ess rolling the rolls.  She's awesome!  I've learned something from her:)

Lion House Dinner Rolls

recipe source: The Lion House and KSL

Ingredients:

2 cups warm water (110 to 115 degrees)
2/3 cup nonfat dry milk (instant or non-instant)
2 tablespoons dry yeast (I use instant)
1/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons salt
1/3 cup butter, shortening, or margarine
1 egg
5 to 6 cups all-purpose flour, or bread flour (I used 6+ cups of flour to get the right consistency.)

Method:

In large bowl or electric mixer, combine water and milk powder; stir until milk dissolves. Add yeast, then sugar, salt, butter, egg, and 2 cups flour. Mix on low speed until ingredients are wet, then for 2 minutes at medium speed. Add 2 cups flour; mix on low speed until ingredients are wet, then for 2 minutes at medium speed. (Dough will be getting stiff and remaining flour may need to be mixed in by hand). Add about ½ cup flour and mix again, by hand or mixer. Dough should be soft, not overly sticky, and not stiff (It is not necessary to use the entire amount of flour).

Scrape dough off sides of bowl and pour about one tablespoon of vegetable oil all around sides of bowl. Turn dough over in bowl so it is covered with oil. (This helps prevent dough from drying out). Cover with plastic and allow to rise in warm place until double in size, about 45 minutes.

Scrape dough out onto floured board. Turn dough over so it is floured on both sides; gently flatten to about 1 inch thick. With rolling pin, roll out to a rectangle about 18 inches long, 8 inches wide, and ¼ inch thick. Brush with melted butter. With pizza cutter or very sharp knife, cut dough in half to make two strips about 4 inches wide. Make cuts through strips of dough every 2 inches, making about 18 pieces of dough.

Starting with short end, roll up one piece of dough, with butter on the inside. Place roll on parchment-lined pan with other short end down on the paper. Repeat with remaining pieces of dough. Be sure all rolls face the same direction on baking pan. Cover lightly with plastic wrap and allow to rise until double in size, about 1 to 1 ½ hours. Bake at 375 degrees for 15 to 18 minutes, or until light to medium golden brown. Brush tops of rolls with melted butter. Serve with Honey Butter. Makes 1 to 1 ½ dozen rolls.

Helpful Tips for Making Rolls

Always add flour gradually and keep dough as soft as you can handle. A soft dough will produce a lighter roll.

It is not necessary to use the entire amount of flour called for in the recipe—add only enough flour to make dough manageable.

Pretzel Rolls

*I made a pretty tasty sandwich with these rolls last night and I'll post that recipe Monday morning. You're going to love it!!  

As a kid, I remember driving home from some sort of family gathering with the whole family in the car. I had a bag of M&M's in my hand.  Just the plain chocolate kind.  I remember reading the ingredients on the back of the package and thinking to myself, "I could totally make some of these!"  I really thought I could.  I sat and stewed, and tried to figure out how I was going to make my homemade M&M's.  As you can guess I never quite figured that one out. Since that day though, it's always fun to 'figure something out' that you like.  Some of my faves have been Chili's Chicken Enchilada Soup, Homemade Butterfingers, and now these Pretzel Rolls.

A few weeks ago, a friend in Idaho posted a picture of these rolls on Instagram.  His wife had made them and he was in heaven.  And BTW, these folks own a Great Harvest in Boise. (Thanks again Mal!)  Isn't it funny how bakery owners love to bake at home as well.  The rolls looked so appetizing, and who doesn't love a hot pretzel?  I could only imagine them with some spicy mustard and ham and cheese.  Yum!  So I made them the other day.   They were a novelty that tasted great.  James came home from work, and I think he ate 3 of the rolls right off the bat.  We loved them.

Now sometimes I make things just to see if I can, and then they will probably never be made again.  These I would definitely make again.  They were just tasty, and fun at the same time.  I am posting the recipe that I followed the other day, but after doing a little research I've come to the conclusion you can make these rolls out of your favorite rolls or white bread recipe.  There's nothing really special about the dough.  The special part comes in the boiling water bath you dunk the dough balls in right before they go in the oven.  The bath is a salt and baking soda mixture, that gives the dough the characteristically pretzel look, taste, and texture.  A little extra time is involved, but I promise you will be happy you made these.

Pretzel Rolls

recipe adapted from Une Bonne Vie

The Dough

2 1/2 cups milk, slightly warmed

1 cup water, slightly warmed

1 teaspoon salt

3 tablespoons canola oil

2 T. sugar

2 T. active dry yeast

6 - 7 1/2 cups unbleached, all-purpose flour (I ended up using 9 c. total) 

Coarse sea salt for sprinkling

The "Bath"

7 cups water

1 tablespoon salt

4 tablespoons baking soda

I used my 6 qt. Kitchenaid for this recipe.  If you have a smaller mixer you may want to cut the recipe in half.  9 c. of flour may be too big of a batch for a smaller mixer, plus it made almost 30 rolls.  You be the judge.  I place all the liquid, salt, oil, sugar and yeast into the bowl first.  Make a quick stir and then I added 7 c. of flour.  Mix on low until the flour is combined.  You want the dough to pull away from the sides of the bowl.  This is where I eventually added 2 more cups of flour.  Not too stiff.  With the dough hook on your mixer, I let the dough knead for a few minutes.  Until it becomes a smooth dough. Remove the bowl from mixer and cover with a cloth and let rise in a warm place for approx. 1 hour or until the dough has doubled in size. 

Punch down dough and dump the dough onto a greased counter top.  Pull the dough together and divide into rolls.  I ended up with 27 good sized rolls.  Mine were a little larger than golf ball sized.   Form balls by pulling the dough under. Place on a well-greased surface. Let the dough balls rise for 15 minutes.

Here's a secret I found.  To get the perfect pretzel look with the white slits in the top of your rolls DO NOT SLICE YOUR ROLLS UNTIL AFTER THE POACHING.  Every part of the dough that touches the water will turn dark brown.  If you slice your rolls after the bath, that tender dough underneath will stay white while baking.  Don't worry about wrinkly dough or ruining the rolls.  Once they're in the over all that wrinkly-ness disappears:)

While the dough balls are rising, preheat the oven to 400 degrees and get the pretzel "bath" ready. In a large pot, bring water, salt, and baking soda to a rolling boil. Plunge three dough balls into the water and let them "poach" for 1 minute total. Using a slotted spoon, transfer them to a well-greased baking sheet. With a serrated knife, cut 2-3 lines across each roll and sprinkle with coarse sea salt. Don't be timid here.  Slice with some confidence!  They rolls will look better after baking if you make slits with some gusto!  You won't hurt the rolls:)  You can egg wash the rolls before you bake them.  I didn't and I was pleased with my outcome.  Or of course you could douse them in butter after they come out of the oven.  Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until pretzels are a rich brown.  These are best eaten the same day they are made.  If you can't eat all those rolls, just cover them with a towel, and the next day to serve them, plop them back in a preheated 350'F oven and give them 2-3 minutes and they will be all toasty and perfect again!

And The Angels Sang Praises

Actually it was my mom and dad and granny. Ok- actually it was me and James, and all the kidlets and my mom and dad and grandma. We sang praises and Hallelujah to the orange rolls we had for Easter Dinner. They were absolutely one of the best things I've ever made in my short legged life. I can't tell you exactly what is was that made them so wonderful. It could have been the new bread recipe, or the fact that my yeast was really fresh, or maybe it was the fact that it was Easter and everything should be perfect on that day. I don't know, but these rolls were so dang good!!

My dad even made the comment that my sister Hollie would have been proud of these rolls. She's the roll queen, and I'm always trying to make mine taste like Hollie's. I may have done it last Sunday. Orange Rolls are the roll of choice at any fancy Clawson-Garner occasion. If there are orange rolls on the table then it must be a special day. I have always loved the way my mom would make these rolls. Instead of a standard roll she would roll the dough out as if she was making a cinnamon roll and top it with butter and then a mixture of white sugar and orange zest. She would then carefully roll the log up and cut it into small c-rolls. Then she would place each roll in a greased muffin tin, let rise, and then bake. Nothing really out of the ordinary, just a perfect little package of orange goodness. When the rolls are hot out of the oven you drizzle a glaze of orange juice, powdered sugar, and a bit of almond extract. YUMMM! My dad is usually the tester to make sure that the rolls aren't poison, but this last Sunday they were a little late, and I had to take one for the team. It was dangerous I know, but I survived and ended up eating about 20 of these babies by the end of the night. The whole meal was delish. I'll have to write about the Potato Fennel and Leek Gratin next or the Creme Brulee Pie . James said the Potato Gratin was amazing and my granny wants me to make the Creme Brulee Pie for everyone at her funeral. She said no Funeral Potatoes, just Creme Brulee Pie. It's her fave. That's why I made it:) But I'm counting everything I'm eating right now. My butts growing a mind of it's own so I must stop this food lust. One neighbor told me he gains weight just reading my blog. Oh well. Sorry Stan, but you really must have Orange Rolls at your next fancy occasion. They'll make your thighs twitch!!

Yummy Bread Recipe

(This is the new recipe I used. When I smell this bread it smells likes Maddox rolls. Now that is a good thing. My kids love me to make this into loaves and have it hot with jam. This recipe made 3 dozen orange rolls. I probably could have made about 3 1/2 dozen since they were so dang big and puffy. It also made 2 big loaves of bread. (9x5 pans) I think it would be great as cinnamon rolls too.)

3 cups warm water

3 tablespoons active dry yeast

3 teaspoons salt

4 tablespoons vegetable oil

1/2 cup white sugar

8 cups bread flour

Directions

In a large bowl, combine warm water, yeast, salt, oil, sugar, and 4 cups flour. Mix thoroughly, and let sponge rise until doubled in size.

Gradually add about 4 cups flour, kneading until smooth. Place dough in a greased bowl, and turn several times to coat. Cover with a damp cloth. Allow to rise until doubled.

Punch down the dough, let it rest a few minutes. Divide dough into three equal parts. Shape into loaves, and place in three 8 1/2 x 4 1/2 inch greased bread pans. Let rise until almost doubled.

Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 35 to 45 minutes. The loaves may need to be covered for the last few minutes with foil to prevent excess browning.

Orange Rolls

After the dough has risen I divided the dough into 3 balls. Roll each one out into a thin rectangle and top with melted butter, white sugar, and orange zest. I combine the sugar and orange zest before I place it on the dough. Roll up as for a cinnamon roll and cut into 12 pieces. Place each piece in a greased muffin tin and cover with a towel until almost double. Bake until puffy and browned. I didn't take note of how long that was. I just checked until they were perfect. When the rolls are done immediately drizzle the orange glaze over the top. You can lick up the drips on the counter when nobody is looking. Enjoy with dinner.

Orange Glaze

Juice from the orange you zested

powdered sugar

almond extract

milk if necessary for thinning